What does the future of the internet look like? If AI firms get their way, the once-open web could be fractured into digital silos dominated by commercial AI models, leaving hobbyists and small businesses behind. To prevent this, a team of grassroots researchers is planning to fight back and ensure an open approach to AI. At the heart of this battle is the concept of an AI "agent", a piece of software that browses the web and interacts with websites according to the instructions of a human user – for example, planning and booking a holiday. Many people see agents as the next evolution of services like ChatGPT, but getting them to work is proving tricky.

Every person engaged with the networked world constantly creates rivers of data. We do this in ways we are aware of, and ways that we aren't. Corporations are eager to take advantage. Take, for instance, NumberEight, a startup, that, according to Wired, "helps apps infer user activity based on data from a smartphone's sensors: whether they're running or seated, near a park or museum, driving or riding a train." New services based on such technology, "will combine what they know about a user's activity on their own apps with information on what they're doing physically at the time."